October 2015

Social Responsibility in the Curriculum

(2 October 2015)

Social responsibility is one of the three core goals for the University and it describes the way we are making a difference to the social and economic well-being of our communities through our teaching, research and public events and activities. One of the key strategic priorities for social responsibility is to ensure our graduates are not only skilled knowledge workers of tomorrow, but are also able to exercise important ethical, social and environmental responsibilities.

The Faculty of Humanities’ flagship programme around the priority of Socially Responsible Graduates is the Social Responsibility in the Curriculum competition. The competition has been running since 2012 and provides small pots of funding for course leaders to include an innovative element into their module highlighting social responsibility. Nearly 50 projects have been supported so far with over £75,000 of funding.

To highlight the excellent work which is being carried out this academic year, we will be featuring the current projects in Humanities eNews during 2015-16. The bi-weekly articles will discuss what is planned or has taken place, and will highlight the range of ways our students can be challenged to think or act in socially responsible ways.

The first article, on 19 October, will feature Dr Thea Cameron-Faulkner’s Book Buddy project.

For anyone inspired by these articles who would like to include an innovative element around social responsibility in their courses for 2016-17, the competition will be launched again during October. Details of previous projects and the call for 2016-17 can be found on Humnet.